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Prom 50: Bach Day - Simon Preston

Date Sunday 24 August 2008 Time 4.00pm - c5.00pm Venue Royal Albert Hall Tickets £10-£15 price band D or Prom for £5 Broadcast Live on BBC Radio 3. Available as audio on demand for the following week. iPlayer Listen to this Prom

Date Sunday 24 August 2008 Time 7.00pm - c9.10pm Venue Royal Albert Hall Tickets £7-£44 price band B or Prom for £5 Broadcast Broadcast at 7.30pm on BBC Four. Live on BBC Radio 3, and available as audio on demand for the following week. iPlayer Listen to this Prom iPlayer Watch this Prom

John Eliot Gardiner, whose recordings of Bach have set new standards in interpretation, has said that \'if the St Matthew Passion begs comparison with some of Rembrandt\'s canvases, the St John is perhaps more like a Caravaggio: shafts of light in the gloom illuminating the key players in this most universal of stories\'.

It\'s a work that focuses on Jesus the man, and his confrontation with Pontius Pilate, with a dramatic insight that makes one regret the absence of a Bach opera. Mark Padmore, a regular collaborator with Gardiner, sings the Evangelist and Peter Harvey takes the part of Jesus. And weaving together the story of the Passion is the magnificent Monteverdi Choir.

J.S. Bach St John Passion (sung in German) (116 mins) There will be no interval

Date Sunday 24 August 2008 Time 10.00pm - 11.15pm Venue Royal Albert Hall Tickets £10-£15 price band D or Prom for £5 Broadcast Live on BBC Radio 3. Available as audio on demand for the following week. iPlayer Listen to this Prom

Chinese cellist Jian Wang takes the stage of the Royal Albert Hall for the first three of Bach\'s six solo suites, works of towering technical accomplishment as well as intellectual and spiritual nourishment.

Jiang Wang comments that \'Bach\'s music has a lot of qualities that appeal to the Chinese philosophy of life: to be humble, to wish but not desire, to love but not own. This is all in Chinese philosophy, and because I grew up with those values, these things are dear to me. When I listen to Bach\'s music, it confirms all of that.\'

J.S. Bach Suite No.1 in G major for solo cello (19 mins) Suite No.2 in D minor for solo cello (23 mins) Suite No.3 in C major for solo cello (24 mins) There will be no interval